Shocking: Black Maidens of Ghana misses out on World Cup 2022 after Morocco defeat

Black Maidens have failed to qualify for the FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup 2022. The Ghanaian ladies suffered a 4-2 defeat on penalties after a 2-2 aggregate scoreline with Morocco on Saturday in the last round matches of the qualifiers for the 2022 Women’s U-17 World Cup.

Ghana’s Black Maidens were a step away from qualifying to the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022 after beating the North African side 2-0 at the Accra sports stadium in the first leg but lost in the second leg with same scoreline in Rabat.

After Ghana had arrived in Morocco, apparently five of their key players were tested positive for the COVID-19, so they could not play.

Also, the dressing room of the Black Maidens was reportedly sprayed with chemicals so the team had to sit outside during the break after they had gone down by a goal to nil.

Coach Baba Nuhu’s side needed just a goal to keep their qualification hope alive but the Morrocan’s cemented their 2-0 win to send the game into the penalty shootout which they won by a 4-2 scoreline.

The 2022 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup will be the 7th edition of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, the biennial international women’s youth football championship is scheduled for October this year in India and the win for Morocco means they will compete among the 16 teams from the continent.

It will be the second time that India host a FIFA tournament after the men’s 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup, and the first time that India host a FIFA women’s football tournament.

Ghana finished third in 2012 which is their best ever record at the competition. However, they played at the quarter finals of the last edition, 2018.